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Tuesday, September 06, 2016

creating with a kid: yarn paintings

MY PHILOSOPHY ON CREATING WITH A KID:

My long time readers know I've been making art with Lucy from day one. From riding on my back while I filmed online classes to letting her create with me in the studio, it's been a priority to share the art making process with my daughter. As I have mentioned in the past it is important for both my husband and I to incorporate Lucy into as many creative projects as possible. And while it makes no difference to us if Lucy grows up to be an artist, we do want her to be a creative thinker. I believe creativity and the ability to think in a creative way is one of the greatest gifts we can give our children and while I am always evolving as an artist and mama, I am learning so much as I watch her develop her own voice.

I love finding projects that Lucy and I can both get excited about. I am finding that the older she gets, the more common creative interests we have! One thing I know from making art my entire life, is that often creativity is less about the finished product but more about the process. These days when I plan out art projects for Lucy I really try to come up with things that are are all about the process.

A favorite around here is experimenting and painting with different materials. Yarn or string painting is a really fun, expressive and messy process. A process that kid's love but a process that is also really fun for artists of any age!

Grab some yarn or string and a whole lot of acrylic paint.

Pour the paint onto plate or palette and cut the string into 6-12 inch pieces.

Dip the yarn into the paint until it is saturated.

Next, plop, splat, pull, drag and wiggle that painty yarn all over your surface (we are using watercolor paper).

This process is messy and SO MUCH FUN!

Personally, I love just about any creative project (even the ones that are for kids) because I obviously love making a messy but I also really enjoy creating colorful and expressive paper for my art journal. These simple techniques are great for adults who like making handmade paper!

You can even take the process a step further and use that yarn to stamp and print.

Simply arrange your painty yarn on a piece of paper.

Next, layer another piece of paper over the top. Use a brayer or your hands to firmly press the two pieces of paper together.

Lift the paper you and you will have a really fun expressive print of the yarn.

We spent about one hour creating our yarn paintings and at the end we had a huge stack of really colorful paper that we will be cutting up and turning into art journals!